Tell me about Bitcoin

[Joshua01]

Hey,

Have any of you guys dipped your toe into the Bitcoin phenomenon? I'm thinking of moving some FRNs into Bitcoin. I've read the stuff online but wanted to reach out to you guys for your experience, advice, etc.

Anything in the way of guidance and experience you can offer would be appreciated

[Ponce]

"If you don't hold it, you don't own it" and bit coin is not only like holding paper but our dearest uncle knows all about it, and when the power goes out? then what?........ NO, buy what you can hold and keep at home.

V

[Serpo]

Look up bitgold instead.......https://www.bitgold.com/

[vacuum]

You can buy some here and open and account:
https://www.coinbase.com/home

I don't recommend you put anything into it that you couldn't afford to take a 100% loss on however. Maybe start out with $50 or $100.

There are two reasons:

(1) If you leave your bitcoin in coinbase, then you are treating coinbase like a bank and trusting them completely. If something ever happens to coinbase, you could lose access your bitcoins. It is exactly like a bank, you aren't "holding it". You can "hold it" though by transferring it into a wallet - software that runs on your pc. But then if something ever happens to your pc (hard drive crash, virus, hacking, accidental delete, etc) then you lose your coins as well. Unless you are technically savy, leave your bitcoins "in the bank" at coindesk.

(2) If you think silver has gut-wrenching price changes, then bitcoin is 100x worse. You simply don't know what will happen. Tomorrow you might lose 70% of the value, then a week later you could double it. You just have to not be concerned about the amount.

So that's my advice. Open a coinbase account with $50. Try transferring $10 of the $50 into a wallet running on your PC. Then transfer it from your pc back to your coinbase account. You can play around with it.

(Disclaimer, I've never used coinbase before, just screwed around with the pc-based wallet)

There are a number of pc-based wallets around. Electrum comes to mind, but there are others.

[Serpo]

My wallet become totally fuzked up and I lost what I had, it did show me that unless you know what you are doing on your computer its very vulnerable to your own stupidity (mine I mean)..............

I did find it over all a disturbing experience. And no way am I going down that path again.

Changing from one computer to another ,the wallet wasnt saved properly and phoof.

[madfranks]

I attached an article I wrote on bitcoin a while back, hopefully you might find it useful.

Spend some time reading the threads on bitcoin on this forum, you'll learn a lot just from that. The main reason I like bitcoins (and crypto in general) is that it is a perfect compliment to physical bullion. Gold/silver are material embodied and digitally independent, meaning their value is physical and they have no tie to anything digital at all. Conversely, bitcoin/litecoin are digital embodied and material independent, meaning their value is purely digital and they have no tie to anything physical. It's easy to envision scenarios where both would be beneficial. For example, for sending long distances, concealing, traveling, etc. bitcoins are superior to gold. For end of the world scenarios where the grid goes down, gold is superior to bitcoin. Why not have both?

Here's what I recommend. Download the bitcoin client, let it sync (might take over 24 hours), then buy some coins on coinbase and send them to your local wallet on your computer. Encrypt your wallet with a password. Back up your wallet. Email the encrypted wallet file to yourself so you can access it anywhere, anytime. Alternately, save a copy of your backed up wallet on a flash drive or two. Every time you add money to your bitcoin wallet back it up again, and re-email it to yourself or re-save it on the flash drive. That way you'll never lose your wallet.

[Ares]

Serpo Do you still have the previous wallet, I could help in recover it.

As was explained the price swings in Bitcoin are insane. It is not uncommon to have 100 dollar a day price swings. It has been more stable as of late (last year or so) and moving in somewhat stable direction. But if the blockchain has a hiccup or the core devs have a fight the price will go up or down drastically depending on that.

I personally use blockchain.info to store my bitcoins. I also use 2 factor authentication as well created a paper backup in case something were to happen with blockchain.infos website. I can still import them into a personal wallet on a PC or another wallet provider.

[Glass]

so bitfury is going to be the medium of choice for traffickers of all kinds.....hmmm

[monty]

Nobody seems to be alarmed over the government's involvement with Bitfury . . .

...https://www.reddit.com/r/btc/comment...ties_with_the/...

[Glass]

I'm not sure I get the full premise of this article. Perhaps you guys can add your thoughts?

Is This Bitcoin's Fatal Flaw?

Bitcon has been rocketing higher lately, as it gains widespread official approval and more people figure out how to use it.

As the first of its kind to emerge, bitcoin has become synonymous with “cryptocurrency”. But lately it’s been joined by a lot of others – which together now account for more than half of the cryptocurrency ecosystem:

For First Time, Bitcoin Accounts for Less Than Half Of Market Cap Of All Cryptocurrencies
(Forbes) – For the first time, Bitcoin’s market capitalization as a percentage of all cryptocurrencies has dropped to below 50%.

It is a symbolic turning point for the first cryptocurrency, which for a long time accounted for more than 90% of the value of all blockchain-based assets combined, particularly through a period when so-called alt-coins that were only minor tweaks to bitcoin proliferated.

Its market capitalization then comprised over 80% of all cryptocurrencies for years, a range that held true until two months ago when it dipped below 80% and not only did not recover but did a quick dive straight down.

Several factors are driving the drop from its status as the clear leader.

1. Bitcoin’s development is stalled.
2. Ethereum continues to grow.
3. New ICOs add value to the crypto space every day.
4. Speculation is driving up the value of all tokens.
5. Ripple is seeing a big spike.
7. Tezos is about to launch.

Those increasingly common predictions of bitcoin going to $20,000 or more are premised on the fact that its algorithm limits its supply. There are many more ounces of gold, for instance, than there are bitcoins, which implies that bitcoin should ultimately trade at a (possibly substantial) multiple of gold’s price.

Each of these points has a paragraph or more discussing them at the link.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-0...ins-fatal-flaw

I don't see that you can really draw a conclusive comparison with PM's and BTC. Primarily because BTC has a fixed known supply limitation even if not all of it has been put into circulation yet. While PM's are also limited in accessibility they are not necessarily limited in supply like BTC is. We just don't know how much PM's there is ultimately going to be, even if we do conclude ultimate supply is limited to a maximum amount.

On the other hand, given human propensity to inflate everything, even if it means decreasing quality and value with each unit of inflation, other Crypto's have the potential to draw demand from BTC simply because it's easier to get.

This is probably the point closest to where PM's and BTC can be compared. Not in their individual availability but in the comparative scarcity compared to other options that are here now and those coming. Because we know that bankers will inflate as much as they desire to capture the energy and productivity of the people for themselves. When they get a crypto into operation it will be geared for their benefit and ultimately be junk.

Does that make sense? Stand up to scrutiny? I'm curious because I've had a few people ask me if I know anything about crypto currencies. It's hard to describe without trying to explain fiat money concepts and why bitcoin is something because it is limited supply. This makes no sense to the average person... assuming I'm talking to average people. Perhaps they aren't.